I don’t think people stopped wanting things.
Most people still want a good life.
Not flashy. Not perfect.
Just solid.
They want steady ground.
They want to feel useful.
They want something they can point to and say, I stuck with that.
What feels different now isn’t desire.
It’s how heavy long goals feel before you even begin.
Not impossible.
Just heavy.
A few years out used to sound normal.
Now it sounds tiring.
Mention a five-year plan and no one laughs.
They don’t argue either.
They just feel the weight of it right away.
People don’t say they’ve given up.
They say they’re being careful.
They say they don’t want to lock themselves in.
They say they’re keeping their options open.
All reasonable things to say.
But here’s what I keep noticing.
We don’t practice staying with things much anymore.
Most of life now runs in short loops.
Do the thing.
Get the response.
Move on.
Finish the task.
Check the box.
Next.
You don’t notice it happening, but your sense of time changes.
You start expecting effort to pay off fast.
You start expecting reassurance along the way.
You start expecting signs that you’re “on the right path.”
And when those signs don’t show up, doubt creeps in.
Not panic.
Just that low, steady second-guessing.
There was a time when long effort didn’t need constant proof. You trusted it because everyone else around you was doing the same thing. You didn’t feel special for sticking with something. It was simply what came next.
You showed up.
Again.
And again.
Now long effort feels like a risk.
So people shorten the road without meaning to.
They don’t quit.
They trim.
Smaller commitments.
Shorter timelines.
More exits built in from the start.
Nothing that traps them.
Nothing that demands too much patience.
You can stay very busy this way.
Productive, even.
But fewer things get carried all the way through.
Projects stall.
Plans remain provisional.
Careers hover instead of settling.
Nothing breaks.
It just never fully sets.
And because nothing collapses, it all feels acceptable.
Normal.
You don’t feel like you’re avoiding anything.
You feel like you’re being smart.
Flexible. Sensible.
Until something real shows up.
Something that doesn’t work in short loops.
Something that needs you to stay when it’s boring.
Something that doesn’t give fast feedback or easy wins.
That’s when the weight hits.
Not because you can’t do it.
But because you haven’t had to carry something that long in a while.
That’s when people start saying things like:
“I’m just tired.”
“I don’t know if I’m built for this.”
“I don’t want to make the wrong choice.”
They’re not weak.
They’re out of practice.
Long goals don’t just require effort.
They require endurance.
And endurance isn’t something you switch on when you need it.
It’s something you build by staying when leaving would be easier.
The problem is, fewer things ask that of us now.
Most of the world is designed to let you step away cleanly.
No shame.
No real cost.
No one makes a fuss.
That feels kind.
But it also means fewer chances to learn what you can carry.
So when a long road finally matters, it feels heavier than it should.
Not because you changed.
But because the world stopped asking you to walk that way.
That’s not an accusation.
It’s an observation.
And it explains a lot of what people are feeling right now, even if they don’t have the words for it yet.
Tomorrow we’ll talk about where this shows up most clearly—
not in theory,
but in everyday places people don’t usually connect back to this at all.
For now, sit with this:
If long goals feel heavy,
it may not be because you’re failing.
It may be because you haven’t been asked to stay long enough,
often enough,
to remember that you can.
The Faust Baseline™Purchasing Page – Intelligent People Assume Nothing
micvicfaust@intelligent-people.org
Unauthorized commercial use prohibited.
© 2026 The Faust Baseline LLC
